148 
A RARE SIMILITUDE. 
The "Woodcock, she who in Norwegian dells, 
Or birchen glades Lapponian, near the swamp 
Sucked from the spongy soil the prey, to cheer 
Her russet young ; till winter's icy car 
On summer's step close pressing, from his realm 
Warned her, 
says Gisborne, thus indicating the countries from whicli 
these migratory birds come, and the season of their south- 
erly flight. According to Phillips, the early arrival and 
continued tarriance of these birds in our ivsland ought to be 
a subject of general thankfulness : — 
The Woodcock's early visit, and abode, 
For long continuance in our temperate clime 
Foretells a liberal harvest. 
Our old dramatist, Ben Jonson, compares the head and 
bill of the woodcock to the bowl and stem of a pipe, to 
which in trutli they bear a striking resemblance ; and he 
takes occasion therefrom to give a sly hit at tobacco- 
smokers. In Every Man in his Humour^ we find this 
passage : — 
Fasted. — Will your ladyship take any ? 
Sarrolina. — 0 peace, I pray thee ! I love not 
The breath of the Woodcock's head. 
Fas. — Meaning my head, lady ? 
Sah. — Not altogether so, sir ; but as it were fatal 
To their follies that think to grace themselves with 
Taking tobacco, when they want better entertainment ; 
You see your pipe bears the true form of a Woodcock's head. 
Fas. — 0 rare similitude ! 
Besides the more regular and sportsman-like way of 
sliooting Woodcocks, they are often taken in snares and 
gins; and were so, we may suppose, in Beaumont and 
Fletcher's time ; for in their play of Wit without Money^ 
they make Isabella allude to the practice : — 
Oh Cupid ! 
What pretty gins thou hast to halter Woodcocks ! 
Knox, in his ' Game Birds and Wild Fowl,' gives a de- 
tailed account of the mode of setting one of these hanging 
gins, as set up by an old poacher, and a spirited illustration 
